STALKER

Chapter 34 - Weirdo aka Peter Troy Part 1

This is one of those chapters that might take a bit of editing to get right.  So don't be surprised if I update it again.

Weirdo (POV)

I've been traveling for four years. I left home when I was 18 with no grand plan. I just wanted to put as much distance between me and my family as possible. My family being my grandmother and mother. Like my father, I got to a point where I couldn't stand it anymore. Unlike him, I've come back. All it took was a telephone call from my mother saying that Nanna Ovia had been taken ill. I was surprised how strong the pull was to go home, even after all the years of embarrassment and frustration they'd caused me, I rushed back.

When I left, Nanna Ovia  was already 82, and showing signs of age catching up to her. On my return, I found she was confined to a wheelchair. Her body had finally failed her. However, she was as sharp and single-minded as ever. I lasted a week living with them. All the old feelings and resentment resurfaced quickly. When I was a kid they were a constant embarrassment and as I grew older and I understood how truly different they were from any other parents; how different our family was, my shame turned to hate. I couldn't stay under the same roof with them back then and I can't do it now. I started looking for a place of my own, close enough to be of help but far enough to not be involved in their life.

It took two weeks to find a share house and a few more to get a job. All this happened in April and May. If you had asked me back in January, while I was enjoying a mindbogglingly strong espresso in the Piazza Navona, if I planned to ever go home, the answer would have been a firm....NO!

In a matter of months circumstances had plucked me from Rome and dumped me in a semi-detached terrace in Sydney; turned me from a solitary traveller to a domesticated housemate.

I'd lived alone for so long I found almost everyone annoying, nonetheless, there I was living with two strangers. My housemates, Terrence and Jane, are polar opposites but have managed to find enough common ground to cohabitate peacefully. They've lived at the terrace for 5 years and have seen lots of housemates come and go. They've refined their screening process over time, it's ruthless.

When I rang to ask about the room, it was 30 minutes later when I finally put down the phone. It wasn't a quick inquiry, it was an interrogation. I felt I had jumped the first hurdle in a long race. I remember when the door opened and I first set eyes on them, I could see they were both mentally ticking off a checklist, hurdle number two. When after an hour of chatting, I was finally allowed to look at the room and the rest of the house, I thought I'd cruised over hurdle three. Finally, at the door on the way out they said they'd call me....face plant. To my surprise they did call, I must have reached an acceptable level and I moved in that week.

Jane is the serious one, a librarian. Most of the time she's lost in her own world. I find her reading in different places around the house, perched on a kitchen bench, standing next to the washing machine as it rumbles through the spin cycle, on the staircase...where ever. She doesn't need to be kept amused with conversation, perfect for me, I hate small talk.

Terrence runs an online vintage fashion store. He is a walking, talking advertisement for his business, sometimes terrifyingly so. He's a decade older than Jane and I, gay and relentlessly friendly. I'm not used to it, not the gay part, the someone wanting to be friends part. I am used to being alone zero bonding, touching, D&M's.

The day I got a job offer they insisted on us celebrating. There's a nightclub, a rather dingy place on the main street, it's their go-to place. We'd been there a couple of times. That night ended up being memorable, but not the way they planned.